Of wizards, Scribes and FizzFroot?
by Miss Wisteria
Summary: Haizeha went to find an adventure, and she got more than her hay pennies worth. OCxBeetle


**Authors notes:**

**Well, it's my first story. (that I will go further than one chapter with) This, I'm hoping, is relatively close to Sage's style. But not too close. I also want my own style to show though. If I do get any loyal readers, I will try and update semi-often. School is a heavy toll on me, sadly.**

**Well, enough of this bold crap. No one's reading it any way. Get your but down there and read!**

**-**

----------------Your ever humble author,

~Beetle

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A stormy wet day in a small wet country across the sea.

Doesn't sound too abnormal, right? But it was this day that a thin bedraggled girl wandered into the grand wall's of the Castle, sopping wet and exhausted. She was a sorry sight, no more than 14, with scraggly brown hair and as thin as a stick. She was garbed in a loose and faded red tunic. In its prime, it was probably worthy of a grand party or two, but it was now reduced to a muddy rag. She wore no shoes, only having her callused and muddy feet to stomp around on.

She carried only a small brown and lumpy sack slung over one shoulder. Her head was down and her long, curly down hair made a curtain around her face. Overall, she looked to be rather unhappy and obviously very poor. Another fact to notice was, she was alone.

Only a few minutes before, she had passed a baffled Gringe the gatekeeper. It was early morning and as the bridge boy slowly drew up the drawbridge, the girl waited patiently at the foot of the bridge, almost as if she had been waiting there for a good while.

Gringe was a rather rough man, but he was not heartless. When the girl began walking across the worn wood of the drawbridge, Gringe leaned out from his booth to get a closer look. He could have sworn he saw a little girl coming across the bridge, alone and barley a scrap on her. He looked both surprised and puzzled as she reached into a grubby pocket and drew out a silver half crown.

"Will this be enough?" She replied in a small, yet a little deep, voice. She looked up to Gringe now, showing two large, brown eyes. They looked rather innocent and sad, another surprise to the already baffled gatekeeper. The stout man examined the change and, even though it was not enough, he mumbled out a "yeah". He looked up to her again, which wasn't much of her, since she was only about 5' 2" and only her head popped up above the counter, and had a rather skeptical expression.

"Ain't you a little young to be walkin' 'round ere alone and all?" He raised an eyebrow and jingled her two coins in his hands. "What's your name?"

The girl looked a little shocked, then rather guilty. Her eye wandered just about everywhere but Gringe's eyes. "Well, I am. I-I haven't even a place to stay…" She seemed to be thinking terribly hard and rather regretful. "And my name's Haizeha." She thought that giving this stranger her name couldn't hurt too much. After all, if she planned to stay in the Castle, someone might as well know her name.

Gringe saw many strange people at his job, many just freaky, and many uninvited. Even so, he couldn't help but worrying about the girl. He figured she ran away from home for the first time with little preparation and no plan. She reminded him of his own Lucy.

"Well, if you don't find a place, I could always move Lucy out of the attic… I mean, you could always _take_ the attic." He said this rather awkwardly, as generosity was not something Gringe was known for. Nonetheless, Haizeha's troubled expression softened a little and she nodded, what could possibly be taken as a ghost of a smile on her thin lips.

She muttered a thank you and wandered off into the mist, but just as she was about out of eye sight, Gringe yelled to her.

"Hey!" He called with his hands cupped around his mouth, "You ain't a 'eap, are you?" He was now fearing his kind offer could backfire, as they tended to do, and could get him involved with a Heap, as they also tended to do.

"Umm… no! I'm not!" Haizeha called back, then shouldered back into the storm. Out of ear shot, Gringe gave a huge sigh of relief and got himself a celebratory cup of tea.

Back on the cobble stone streets of the Castle, Haizeha was trying to peer through the immensely thick curtain of rain, now a little easier to see through as dawn went on. She had heard about how it rained harder on the Castle than anywhere else, but she had always thought it an old wives tale. Well, she got it now.

"Ah, here it is…" Haizeha almost sighed, a hint of joy in her voice as she turned into a large ally way, now filled with the early risers of the Castle. Her destination was the Ramblings, the place where most of the Castle lived. Her plan, simple and as vague as it was, was to put up stake in a small Ramblings apartment. The only problem was, she had no more than a hay penny to her name. Haizeha hoped to talk the land lord to giving her time to get a job, and if she had to, take a grunt work side job around the apartments to help pay it off. It wasn't luxury, but this time she was not turning back.

"47… 48… ah, 49." She mumbled to herself, a habit she picked up only a short while ago. She now stood outside a large, worn door with a big brass knocker. Haizeha was starting to have second thoughts. This had to be the scariest thing she ever did. Well, on her own at least. Her thin, pale hand shakily reached up to the brass knocker. Could she really do this? What if they said no? Where would she go then? Well, there was that gatekeepers'…

But her mind was made up for her as someone from the increasingly crowding hall bumped into her side and made her head but the door. Her forehead connected with the wood with a worrying crack. She fell to her knees, tears pricking eyes. Haizeha had to use all she had to keep them from sliding down her cheeks. Wonderful.

Then, the door in front of her swished open, just narrowly missing hitting Haizeha's head again. A boy, probably Haizeha's age, stood rather irritated, fixing his scarf around his rather ample neck. He was well build, not on the thin side, but looked healthy. There was a shock of oily back and curly hair on his pale head. His eyes, looking very distracted at that moment, were a warm brown.

"Wot?" He snapped, bothered that his routine was disturbed. " I've got to get ready so-" He stopped short, seeing Haizeha kneeling before him. "Ohcrumbsareyouokay?!" He blurted, plopping down beside her and putting a hand on her back reassuringly. Haizeha looked up surprised, staring at the boy with her large brown orbs, tears sparkling at the sides of them.

The boy felt a flush heat up hi face. He gulped a bit, and then regained some of his composure. "Umm… a-are you alright?" The boy stuttered out, not taking his hand off her back. Haizeha sniffed a bit, then wiped at her eyes with her long sleeves. "T-truthfully, no…" Haizeha was never one to beat around the bush and just said what came to mind. Even in this situation, she held nothing back.

"Oh jeeze, uh, how about you come inside." He smiled a bit, and, as Haizeha noticed despite the situation, it was the kind of warm smile that made you want to smile back. He stood up and dusted his off-white britches off a bit, then gestured Haizeha into the house. "My mom is good with this stuff, so if you want…"

Before he could finish his sentence, Haizeha stomped through the threshold. The apartment wasn't what she expected for a land lord. It was rather cluttered and small, having only one bedroom a bathroom, a small living area and a kitchen. She stood in the living area right by the door, still inspecting the room, when a large, ample woman wandered into the room carrying a laundry basket. She looked very motherly, as Haizeha noticed, and generally jaunty.

"Beetle!" She shouted, a strand of thick, black hair escaping her bun at the back of her head. "I used the wrong **SoapScum **charm again and it made your undies grow. Again." She held up a very large pair of underwear that was apparently Beetles, the boy who let her in, as his face was now an unhealthy shade of puce.

"M-mum!" He shouted, mortified as she shock the undergarments around. "We have a guest!" He pointed to Haizeha, who was looking at the woman and clothes with interest, and then back at Beetle. At first she showed no emotion, and then a large and playful grin grew on her face.

"Well, you better go get your 'undies'." She stifled a giggle as Beetle quickly looked away and, head down, collected his underwear and headed to his room towards the back of the apartment. The woman, not even fazed by her son's obvious humiliation at her hands, merely blinked at Haizeha with interest.

"Well, well, well," She finally said in a sing-song voice and put a hand on her large yet motherly hip. "Beetle went out for all of three minutes and has already got himself a girl? Ah, I knew he had it in him!" Haizeha, already very fond of the upbeat and indifferent air of the woman, smiled and shook her scraggly head.

"No,no, it's not like that, sorry." Haizeha giggled, then continued. "I came about renting an apartment. You _are_ the landlady, right?" Haizeha's momentary good mood began to fade as the woman looked more and more baffled, and then realized that she had probably gotten the address wrong. Already she was mentally punching herself.

Now the woman shook her head and laughed a bit. She put down her basket and ran a hand through her unruly and frizzy ebony hair. "The landlord is actually across the hall from here." Haizeha's face must have been one of severe mortification because Beetle's mother laughed a bit more. "Don't worry though. You were better off coming here, actually. That stingy old barge rat has been jiping us for years, but since this is the best place we can get, we have to put up with him." She distinctly glared across the hall, mentally hoping he knew she was. "Besides, all the apartments are full right now." She added simply and picked her basket up, as if to dismiss the topic and get on with the day.

Haizeha was just on the verge of tears all over again. The older woman, who was about to turn away, saw her feverently wiping at her eyes and nose. Now, this woman was a mother. She coulden't just leave a girl all to her lonesome self. The woman sighed and walked over to the girl, putting an arm around her and giving a wan smile.

"Hey, don't get so down." She cooed reassuringly. "Here, why don't you sit for a while and tell me about it. You look like you could use a bit of food in you." The woman led her to an old couch by the far wall and got her a cup of tea which Haizeha downed with gluttony.

"Now, why don't you tell me why you're here all alone and lookin' for a place to live." She was in the kitchen, fixing up a bit of chicken soup that she was planning for dinner that night, but figured Haizeha needed it more than they did.

Haizeha sat with the now empty cup of tea in her hands and her wide chocolate eyes slowly scanning the room, finally resting on the woman's motherly face. "Well, my name's Haizeha and I'm from the farmlands. "

The woman stopped cooking for a second and looked at the small girl, impressed and concerned at the same time. "The farmlands a good trek away. What are you doing here all alone?" She started stirring the pot on the stove now, the smell of warm soup making Haizeha's mouth water.

"I-I come from a poor farming family with many siblings, but…" Haizeha faltered, wary of how much she told this woman, but like when she first saw Gringe, it made her feel good to talk to someone. This woman didn't look at all like she could do anything bad. "But I didn't like farmlife. I always dreamed of the Castle though when my sister's friend, Maizie Smalls, came and told us younger kids about the wonder and mysteries of the castle." Haizeha took on a wistful and dreamy look. Everything she had heard about the Castle was pretty much as mystifying as she had imagined, and she hadn't been there very long or even seen a fraction of it.

As Haizeha was drifting into her Castle reverie, Beetle, who had popped up in the doorway to the bedroom next to Haizeha while she was talking, looked over with a playful smirk. "Well, continue. I want to hear the end before I head off." He laughed a bit as he slipped on a navy jacket over his red shirt, looking at Haizeha expectantly.

As she snapped to, Haizeha found herself staring at Beetle. She was about to make a snarky comment to him, but his mother beat her to it. "Beetle!" She scoffed. "Haizeha is not telling this for your amusement. Now, get along. You'll be late for work." Beetle did a double-take, then whipped out a golden pocket watch, something that Haizeha was rather impressed by, and gasped.

"Oh crumbs! I _am_ late!" He scurried to the door, grabbing his messenger container and slinging it over his shoulder. Right before he went out the door, he leant towards his mother. "Quick bite before I go?" He reached for the spoon, but his mother affectionately scooted him out the door with a pat on his bum.

"We'll have none of that, young man!" She said as she closed the door behind him. A fond smile found its way to her lips despite herself. "Ay, that boy does know how to get to me." She laughed as she went back to her cooking. "You know, he works for the Manuscriptorium. Youngest one to pass the entrance exam." She said this with great pride, as it was something she loved to boast about. In fact, it was Beetles paycheck that kept their apartment. "Oh I'm sorry, please continue. So, you didn't like the farm?"

"No, I dreamed of walking the cobblestones of the Castle and being surrounded by people, not sheep." She laughed a bit and played with her cup, a rather embarrassed look now coming over her face. "Well, my parents always said no when I asked to go to the Castle, so one day, I decided to take it upon myself. I tried to leave many times, but I never made it far. This time was special though, and I did make it to see the sunrise over the Castle walls." She sat back and closed her eyes in ecstasy, remembering the Palace skyline. "It was breathtaking."

Beetles mother figured what happened next. "And then when you got here, you had no plans." Haizeha's ears got red and she looked sheepishly over to the woman. "Ah, think nothing of it. The important thing is, do you still want to be here?" Beetle's mother was beginning to get an idea in mind, but she first wanted to know that Haizeha did not plan on going back.

"No, I wouldn't back out now." She said with determination. Her eyes were serious and she no longer blushed or fidgeted. This was something she planned on seeing to the end for once. Beetles mother, to Haizeha's surprise, looked happy, or rather generous. She turned the stove down and walked towards the back of the apartment. From her long paupers apron, she took out a small iron key.

Haizeha eyed Mrs. Beetle with suspicion. What on earth was she doing? The woman walked over to an almost hidden door next to the entrance to Beetle's bedroom and wedged the key into the crack, not the keyhole. Haizeha's face resembled that of little kid on a sugar crash.

"M-Mrs. Beetle?" She hesitantly asked while the woman jarred away at the door frame. "Are you… breaking and entering?" The woman seemed to not noticed and was concentrating hard on breaking the lock on the door. She had her ample shoulder up against the worn wood and her toung off to the corner of her lip.

"Well, I pay enough." She answered though her struggle. "I should get this dingy little room too." At last, a snap in the door sounded and Mrs. Beetle easily opened it. She smiled triumphantly and gestured Haizeha over. As the girl walked up, she burst into a coughing spree. When she peered inside, she saw it was a small room with a cot and bureau, all coated in dust and who knows what.

Haizeha turned back to Mrs. Beetle questioningly. "What is this for?" She was about to add 'Why does it look worse than the marsh on a low tide summers day?' but for once, bit her tongue.

She was very glad she didn't say all of what came to her mind after Beetle's mother stepped back a bit. She smiled her warm motherly smile and put a hand on Haizeha's shoulder. "Well, if you really want, it can be your room."

And if Haizeha ever looked back on her life years and tears from then, she would have pinpointed that point in time as the most life alter and fate changing moment of her life.

~ O. Beetle Beetle (author)

To be continued


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